Fingerprint scanners are currently integrated in some host electronic devices. While the physical integration of scanners within host electronic devices as been achieved, the integration of functions between the scanners and the host devices has yet to be perfected. What is needed but has not been provided is a physical integration of a scanner with an operating portion of the host electronic device, such as a button, e.g., the home button on a cell phone. Currently, numerous host digital devices can contain, as an example, a user authentication apparatus, e.g., a finger scanner that can be utilized to authenticate user identities, e.g., utilizing an image of the user's fingerprint to match against a stored template fingerprint image and/or otherwise matching, e.g., utilizing biometric minutia, such as, fingerprint minutia, extracted from such an image. Many such devices are portable and battery powered. It is therefore essential that the power consumed by the operation of the finger scanners be kept to a minimum. What is needed, but has yet been provided, is a digital device that can contain a biometric scanner, such as a finger image scanner, which operates with a minimum of power consumption.